CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK

The Secret Beyond Matter

Warning

The chapter you are now about to read reveals a crucial secret of your life. You should read it very attentively and thoroughly, for it is concerned with a subject that is liable to make a fundamental change in your outlook upon the external world.

The subject of this chapter is not just a point of view, a different approach, or a traditional philosophical thought: it is a fact which everyone, believing or unbelieving, must admit and which is also proven by science today.

AN IMPORTANT STATEMENTThe Secret Beyond Matter is Not Wahdatul Wujood

The topic called "The Real Essence of Matter" has been criticized by some people. Having misunderstood the essence of the subject, these people claim that what is explained as the secret beyond matter is identical to the teaching of Wahdatul Wujood. Let us state, before all else, that the author of this book is a believer strictly abiding by the doctrine of Ahlus Sunnah and does not defend the view of Wahdatul Wujood.

However, it should also be remembered that Wahdatul Wujood was defended by some leading Islamic scholars including Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi. It is true that numerous significant Islamic scholars who described the concept of Wahdatul Wujood in the past did so by considering some subjects found in these books. Still, what is explained in these books is not the same as Wahdatul Wujood.

Some of those who defended the view of Wahdatul Wujood were engrossed by some erroneous opinions and made some claims contrary to the Qur'an and the doctrine of Ahlus Sunnah. They, for example, completely rejected the creation of Allah. When the subject of the secret beyond matter is told, however, there is definitely no such claim. This section explains that all beings are created by Allah, and that the originals of these beings are seen by Him whereas people merely see the images of these beings formed in their brains.

Mountains, plains, flowers, people, seas-briefly everything we see and everything that Allah informs us in the Qur'an that exists and that He created out of nothing is created and does indeed exist. However, people cannot see, feel or hear the real nature of these beings through their sense organs. What they see and feel are only the copies that appear in their brains. This is a scientific fact taught at all schools primarily in medicine. The same applies to the article you are reading now; you can not see nor touch the real nature of it. The light coming from the original article is converted by some cells in your eyes into electrical signals, which are then conveyed to the sight center in the back of your brain. This is where the view of this article is created. In other words, you are not reading an article which is before your eyes through your eyes; in fact, this article is created in the sight center in the back of your brain. The article you are reading right now is a "copy of the article" within your brain. The original article is seen by Allah.

In conclusion, the fact that the matter is an illusion formed in our brains does not "reject" the matter, but provides us information about the real nature of the matter: that no person can have connection with its original.

There Is Matter Outside of Us, But We Cannot Reach It

… [S]aying that matter is an illusion does not mean it does not exist. Quiet the contrary: whether we perceive the physical world or not, it does exist. But we see it as a copy in our brain or, in other words, as an interpretation of our senses. For us, therefore, the physical world of matter is an illusion.

The matter outside is seen not just by us, but by other beings too. The angels Allah delegated to be watchers witness this world as well:

And the two recording angels are recording, sitting on the right and on the left. He does not utter a single word, without a watcher by him, pen in hand! (Surah Qaf: 17-18)

Most importantly, Allah sees everything. He created this world with all its details and sees it in all its states. As He informs us in the Qur'an:

Say: "Allah is a sufficient witness between me and you. He is certainly aware of and sees His servants." (Surat al-Isra': 96)

It must not be forgotten that Allah keeps the records of everything in the book called Lawh Mahfuz (Preserved Tablet). Even if we don't see all things, they are in the Lawh Mahfuz. Allah reveals that He keeps everything's record in the "Mother of the Book" called Lawh Mahfuz with the following verses:

It is in the Source Book with Us, high-exalted, full of wisdom. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 4)

… We possess an all-preserving Book. (Surah Qaf: 4)

Certainly there is no hidden thing in either heaven or Earth which is not in a Clear Book. (Surat an-Naml: 75)

Knowing The Real Essence Of Matter

People who contemplate their surroundings conscientiously and wisely realise that everything in the universe—both living and non-living—must have been created. So the question now is "Who is the creator of all these things?"

It is evident that "the fact of creation", which reveals itself in every aspect of the universe, cannot be an outcome of the universe itself. For example, a bug could not have created itself. The solar system could not have created or organised itself. Neither plants, humans, bacteria, erythrocytes (red-blood corpuscles), nor butterflies could have created themselves. The possibility that these could all have originated "by chance" is not even imaginable.

We therefore arrive at the following conclusion: Everything that we see has been created. But none of the things that we see can be "creators" themselves. The Creator is different from and superior to all that we see with our eyes, a superior power, invisible but Whose existence and attributes are revealed in everything that exists.

This is the point at which those who deny the existence of Allah demur. They are conditioned not to believe in His existence unless they see Him with their own eyes. They may disregard the fact of "creation", but they cannot ignore the actuality of "creation" manifested all throughout the universe and find themselves forced to prove —falsely—that the universe and the living things in it have not been created. Evolutionary theory is a key example of their vain endeavours to this end.

The basic mistake of those who deny Allah is shared by many people who in fact do not really deny the existence of Allah but have a wrong perception of Him. These people, who make up the majority of the society in some countries, do not openly deny creation, but have superstitious beliefs about "where" Allah is. Most of them think that Allah is "up in the sky." They falsely imagine that Allah is behind a very distant planet and interferes with "worldly affairs" once in a while. Or perhaps that He does not intervene at all: He created the universe and then left it to itself and people are left to determine their fates for themselves. (Surely Allah is beyond that.)

Still others know the fact that Allah is "everywhere" as revealed in the Qur'an, but they cannot perceive exactly what this means. They think that Allah surrounds everything like radio waves or like an invisible, intangible gas. (Surely Allah is beyond that.)

However, this notion and other beliefs that are unable to make clear "where" Allah is (and maybe unwisely deny His evident existence because of that) are all based on a common mistake. They hold a prejudice without any grounds and then are moved to wrong opinions of Allah. What is this prejudice?

This prejudice is about the nature and characteristics of matter. Some people are so conditioned to suppositions about the real essence of matter that they may have never thought about it thoroughly. Modern science demolishes the prejudice about the nature of matter and discloses a very important and imposing reality. In the following pages, we will try to explain this great reality to which the Qur'an points.

The World of Electrical Signals

Stimulations coming from an object are converted into electrical signals and cause an effect in the brain. When we "see", we in fact view the effects of these electrical signals in our mind.

All the information that we have about the world we live in is conveyed to us by our five senses. The world we know of consists of what our eye sees, our hand feels, our nose smells, our tongue tastes, and our ear hears. We never think that the "external" world can be other than what our senses present to us, as we have been dependent only on those senses since the day of our birth.

Modern research in many different fields of science, however, points to a very different understanding and creates serious doubt about our senses and the world that we perceive with them.

The starting-point of this approach is that the notion of an "external world" shaped in our brain is only a response created in our brain by electrical signals. The only information you have about the redness of the apple, the hardness of the wood, -even, your mother, your father, your family, and everything that you own, your house, your job, and the lines of this book, are comprised only of electrical signals. In other words, we can never know the true color of the apple in the outside world, nor the true structure of wood there, nor the real appearance of our parents and the ones we love. They all exist in the outside world as Allah's creations, but we can only have direct experience of the copies in our brains for so long as we live.

In order to clarify the subject, let us consider our sense of sight, which provides us with the most extensive information about the external world.

How Do We See, Hear, and Taste?

Bundles of light coming from an object fall on the retina upside-down. Here, the image is converted into electrical signals and transmitted to the centre of vision at the back of the brain. Since the brain is insulated from light, it is impossible for light to reach this centre. This means that we view a vast world of light and depth in a tiny spot which receives no light whatsoever.

Even at the moment when we see the light and feel the heat of a fire, the inside of our brain is pitch dark and its temperature never changes.

The act of seeing is realised in a very progressive way. Light clusters (photons) that travel from the object to the eye pass through the lens in front of the eye where they are broken up and fall in reverse on the retina at the back of the eye. Here, the impinging light is turned into electrical signals that are transmitted by neurons to a tiny spot called the centre of vision in the back part of the brain. This electrical signal is perceived as an image in this centre in the brain after a series of processes. The act of seeing actually takes place in this tiny spot at the posterior part of the brain, which is pitch-dark and completely insulated from light.

Now, let us reconsider this seemingly ordinary and unremarkable process. When we say that "we see", we are in fact seeing the effects of the impulses reaching our eye and induced in our brain after they are transformed into electrical signals. That is, when we say that "we see", we are actually observing electrical signals in our mind.

All the images we view in our lives are formed in our centre of vision, which makes up only a few cubic centimetres of the volume of the brain. Both the book you are now reading and the boundless landscape you see when you gaze at the horizon fit into this tiny space. Another point that has to be kept in mind is that, as we have noted before, the brain is insulated from light; its inside is absolutely dark. The brain has no contact with light itself, which exists outside.

We can explain this interesting situation with an example. Let us suppose that there is a burning candle in front of us. We can sit across from this candle and watch it at length. However, during this period of time, our brain never has any direct contact with the candle's original light. Even as we see the light of the candle, the inside of our brain is pitch dark. We watch a colourful and bright world inside our dark brain.

R.L. Gregory gives the following explanation of the miraculous aspect of seeing, an action that we take so very much for granted:

We are so familiar with seeing, that it takes a leap of imagination to realise that there are problems to be solved. But consider it. We are given tiny distorted upside-down images in the eyes, and we see separate solid objects in surrounding space. From the patterns of simulation on the retinas we perceive the world of objects, and this is nothing short of a miracle.45

The same situation applies to all our other senses. Sound, touch, taste and smell are all transmitted to the brain as electrical signals and are perceived in the relevant centres in the brain.

The sense of hearing functions in the same manner. The outer ear picks up available sounds by the auricle and directs them to the middle ear; the middle ear transmits the sound vibrations to the inner ear by intensifying them; the inner ear sends these vibrations to the brain by translating them into electrical signals. Just as with the eye, the act of hearing finalises in the centre of hearing in the brain. The brain is insulated from sound just as it is from light. Therefore, no matter how noisy it is outside, the inside of the brain is completely silent.

Nevertheless, even the subtlest sounds are perceived in the brain. The precision of this process is such that the ear of a healthy person hears everything without any atmospheric noise or interference. In your brain, which is insulated from sound, you listen to the symphonies of an orchestra, hear all the noises in a crowded place, and perceive all the sounds within a wide frequency band ranging from the rustling of a leaf to the roar of a jet plane. However, if the sound level in your brain were to be measured by a sensitive device at that moment, it would be seen that complete silence prevails there.

We perceive a perfume, a flower, food we enjoy, the smell of the sea and all other smells we like or dislike in our brains.

Our perception of odour forms in a similar way. Volatile molecules emitted by things such vanilla or a rose reach the receptors in the delicate hairs in the epithelium region of the nose and become involved in an interaction. This interaction is transmitted to the brain as electrical signals and perceived as smell. Everything that we smell, be it nice or bad, is nothing but the brain's perceiving of the interactions of volatile molecules after they have been transformed into electrical signals. You perceive the scent of a perfume, a flower, a food that you like, the sea, or other odours you like or dislike in your brain. The molecules themselves never reach the brain. Just as with sound and vision, what reaches your brain is simply electrical signals. In other words, all the odours that you have assumed to belong to external objects since you were born are just electrical signals that you feel through your sense organs. You can never have direct experience of the true nature of a scent in the outside world.

Similarly, there are four different types of chemical receptors in the front part of a human being's tongue. These register salty, sweet, sour, and bitter tastes. Our taste receptors transform these perceptions into electrical signals after a chain of chemical processes and transmit them to the brain. These signals are perceived as taste by the brain. The taste you get when you eat a chocolate bar or a fruit that you like is the interpretation of electrical signals by the brain. You can never reach the object on the outside; you can never see, smell or taste the chocolate itself. For instance, if taste nerves that travel to your brain are cut, nothing you eat at that moment will impinge upon your brain; you will completely lose your sense of taste.

And here is another interesting fact: We can never be sure that what we feel when we taste a food and what another person feels when he tastes the same food, or what we perceive when we hear a voice and what another person perceives when he hears the same voice are the same. On this point, Lincoln Barnett says that no one can know that another person perceives the colour red or hears the C note the same way as he himself does.46

Our sense of touch is no different than the others. When we touch an object, all information that will help us recognise the external world and objects are transmitted to the brain by the sense nerves on the skin. The feeling of touch is formed in our brain. Contrary to general belief, the place where we perceive the sense of touch is not at our finger tips or skin but at the relevant centre in our brain. As a result of the brain's assessment of electrical stimulations coming from objects to it, we sense different properties these objects such as hardness or softness, or heat or cold. We derive all details that help us recognise an object from these stimulations. Two famous philosophers, B. Russell and L. Wittgeinstein, have this to say:

For instance, whether a lemon truly exists or not and how it came to exist cannot be questioned and investigated. A lemon consists merely of a taste sensed by the tongue, an odour sensed by the nose, a colour and shape sensed by the eye; and only these features of it can be subject to examination and assessment. Science can never know the physical world.47

It is impossible for us to reach the original physical world. All objects around us are apprehended through one or more means of perception such as seeing, hearing, and touching. By processing the data in the centre of vision and in other sensory centres, our brain, throughout our lives, confronts not the "original" of the matter existing outside us but rather the copy formed inside our brain. We can never know what the original forms of these copies are like.

"The External World" Inside Our Brain

All the things we see in our lives are formed in a part of our brain called the "vision center", which is only a few cubic centimetres in size. Both the book you are now reading and the boundless landscape you see when you gaze at the horizon fit into this tiny space. That is to say that when we look at objects, it is the interpretation of our brain which gives an idea of their size since, for obvious pysical reasons, the images formed of them in the centre of vision cannot be on the same scale as the objects themselves.

As a result of our scientific investigation of the physical facts described so far, we may conclude the following: we can never have direct experience of the original of anything we see, touch, hear, and perceive as matter, "the world" or "the universe." We merely know their copies in our brain.

Someone eating a fruit in fact is aware not of the actual fruit itself but of a 'picture' of it in the brain. The object considered to be a "fruit" actually consists of an electrical impression in the brain which includes the shape, taste, smell, and texture of the fruit. If the sight nerve travelling to the brain were to be severed suddenly, the image of the fruit would suddenly disappear. Similarly a disconnection in the nerve travelling from the sensors in the nose to the brain would completely destroy the sense of smell. Simply put, the fruit is nothing but the interpretation of electrical signals by the brain.

Another point to be considered is the sense of distance. Take, for example, the distance between you and this book. It is only a feeling of emptiness formed in your brain. Objects that seem to be distant to the human being likewise exist in the brain. For instance, someone who watches the stars in the sky assumes that they are millions of light-years away from him. Yet what he "sees" are really the stars inside himself, in his centre of vision. While you read these lines, you are, in fact, not inside the room you assume you are in; on the contrary, the room is inside you. Your seeing your body makes you think that you are inside it. However, you must remember that you have never seen your original body, either; you have always seen a copy of it formed inside your brain.

The same applies to all your other perceptions. For instance, when you think that you hear the sound of the television in the next room, you are actually experiencing the sound inside your brain. Both the sound you imagine to be coming from metres away and the conversation of a person right next to you are perceived in a centre of hearing measuring a few cubic centimetres inside your brain. Within this centre of perception, no concept such as right, left, front or behind exists. That is, sound does not come to you from the right, from the left or from the air; there is no direction from which the sound comes.

We see everything around us as coloured inside the darkness of our brains, just as this garden looks coloured from the window of a darkened room.

The same is true of odour. Just as a rose will appear as an image in the centre of vision, so will its fragrance be sensed in the centre of smell. Whether the source of the odour is near or far, and whether the odour is sour, sweet, acrid, pleasant, etc. are likewise matters for the brain to interpret.

The "external world" presented to us by our perceptions is merely a collection of the electrical signals reaching our brain. Throughout our lives, these signals are processed by our brain and we proceed without recognising that we are mistaken in assuming that these are the "original" versions of matter existing in the external world. We are misled because we can never directly reach matter itself by means of our senses.

Moreover, it is again our brain that interprets and attributes meaning to the signals about the "external world" and we assume to be dealing with its original. For example, let us consider the sense of hearing. It is in fact our brain that transforms the sound waves in the "external world" into a symphony. That is to say, we know music as interpreted by our brain, not the original music that exists outside. In the same manner, when we see colours, what reaches our eyes are merely electrical signals of different wavelengths. It is again our brain that transforms these signals into colours. The colours in the "external world" are unknown to us. We can never have direct experience of the true red of an apple, the true blue of the sky or the true green of trees. The external world depends entirely on the perceiver.

Even a slightest defect in the retina of the eye causes colour blindness. Some people perceive blue as green, and some red as blue. In these cases, it does not matter whether the object outside is coloured or not.

The World of Senses can Occur Without Outside World's Existence

As a result of artificial stimulations, a physical world as true and realistic as the real one can be formed in our brain. Thus, a person may think that he is flying an airplane, while he is actually sitting at home.

One factor which reveals that everything we see and experience exists in our brain and that we can never know the original of the matter that exists outside is that we do not need an outside world for senses to occur in the brain. Many technological developments such as simulators and also dreams are the most important evidences of this truth.

Science writer, Rita Carter, states in her book, Mapping The Mind, that "there's no need for eyes to see" and describes at length an experiment carried out by scientists. In the experiment, blind patients were fitted with a device that transformed video pictures into vibrating pulses. A camera mounted next to the subjects' eyes spread the pulses over their backs so they had continuous sensory input from the visual world. The patients started to behave as if they could really see, after a while. For example, there was a zoom lens in one of the devices so as to move closer the image. When the zoom is operated without informing the patient beforehand, the patient had an urge to protect himself with two arms because the image on the subject's back expanded suddenly as though the world was looming in.48

As it is seen from this experiment, we can form sensations even when they are not caused by material equivalents in the outside world. All stimuli can be created artificially.

"The World of Senses" that We Experience in Dreams

A person can experience all senses vividly without the presence of the outside world. The most obvious example of this is dreams. A person lies on his bed with closed eyes while dreaming. However, in spite of this, that person senses many things which he or she experiences in real life, and experiences them so realistically that the dreams are indistinguishable from the real life experience. Everyone who reads this book will often bear witness to this truth in their own dreams. For example, a person lying down alone on a bed in a calm and quiet atmosphere at night might, in his dream, see himself in danger in a very crowded place. He could experience the event as if it were real, fleeing from danger in desperation and hiding behind a wall. Moreover, the images in his dreams are so realistic that he feels fear and panic as if he really was in danger. He has his heart in his mouth with every noise, is shaken with fear, his heart beats fast, he sweats and demonstrates the other physical affects that the human body undergoes in a dangerous situation.

The World in The Dreams

For you, reality is all that can be touched with the hand and seen with the eye. In your dreams you can also "touch with your hand and see with your eye", but in reality, you have neither hand nor eye, nor is there anything that can be touched or seen. There is no material reality in your dream that makes these things happen except your brain. You are living in an illusory world.

What is it that separates real life and dreams from one another? Ultimately, both aspects of life are experienced within the brain. If we are able to live easily in an unreal world during our dreams, a similar state of affairs can be equally true of the world we live in. When we wake up from a dream, there is no logical reason for not thinking that we have entered a longer dream that we call "real life". The reason we consider our dream to be fancy and the world as real is nothing but a product of our habits and prejudices. This suggests that we may well be awoken from the life on earth which we think we are living right now, just as we are awoken from a dream.

A person who falls from a high place in his dream feels it with all his body, even though he is lying in bed without moving. Alternatively, one might see oneself slipping into a puddle, getting soaked and feeling cold because of a cold wind. However, in such a case, there is neither a puddle, nor is there wind. Furthermore, despite sleeping in a very hot room, one experiences the wetness and the cold, as if one were awake.

Someone who believes he is dealing with the original of the material world in his dream can be very sure of himself. He can put his hand on his friend's shoulder when the friend tells him that "it isn't possible to deal with the original of the world", and then ask "Don't you feel my hand on your shoulder? If so, how can you say that you don't see the original matter? What makes you think in this way? Let's take a trip up the Bosphorus; we can have a chat about it and you'll explain to me why you believe this." The dream that he sees in his deep sleep is so clear that he turns on the engine with pleasure and accelerates slowly, almost jumping the car by pressing the pedal suddenly. While going on the road, trees and road lines seem solid because of the speed. In addition, he breathes clean Bosphorus air. But suppose he is woken up by his ringing alarm clock just when he's getting ready to tell his friend that what he's seeing is the original matter. Wouldn't he object in the same manner regardless of whether he was asleep or awake?

When people wake up they understand that what they've seen until that moment is a dream. But for some reason they are not suspicious about the real nature of the life that starts with a "waking" image (what they call "real life") can also be a dream. However, the way we perceive images in "real life" is exactly the same as the way we perceive our dreams. We see both of them in the mind. We cannot understand they are images until we are woken up. Only then do we say "what I have just seen was a dream". So, how can we prove that what we see at any given moment is not a dream? We could be assuming that the moment in which we are living is real just because we haven't yet woken up. It is possible that we will discover this fact when we are woken up from this "waking dream" which takes longer than dreams we see everyday. We do not have any evidence that proves otherwise.

Many Islamic scholars have also proclaimed that the life around us is only a dream, and that only when we are awakened from that dream with "a big awakening", will people be able to understand that they live in a dreamlike world. A great Islamic scholar, Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi, referred to as Sheikh Akbar (The greatest Sheikh) due to his superior knowledge, likens the world to our dreams by quoting a saying of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace):

The Prophet Muhammad [may Allah bless him and grant him peace] said that "people are asleep and wake up when they die." This is to say that the objects seen in the world when alive are similar to those seen when asleep while dreaming...49

In a verse of the Qur'an, people are told to say on doomsday when they are resurrected from the dead:

They will say, "Alas for us! Who has raised us from our sleeping-place? This is what the All-Merciful promised us. The Messengers were telling the truth." (Surah Ya Sin: 52)

As the verse demonstrates, people wake up on doomsday as if waking from a dream. Like someone woken from the middle of a dream in deep sleep, such people will similarly ask who has woken them up. As the verse points out, the world around us is like a dream and everybody will be woken up from this dream, and will begin to see images of the afterlife, which is the real life.

Who is The Perceiver?

The following question appears on the cover of the American science magazine New Scientist which dealt with this fact in its 30 January 1999 issue: "Beyond Reality: Is the Universe Really a Frolic of Primal Information and Matter Just a Mirage?"

As we have explained so far, we can never have experience of the original of the material world we think we are inhabiting and that we call the "external world." However, here arises the question of primary importance. If we cannot reach the original of any of the material existence that we know of, what about our brain? Since our brain is a part of the physical world just like our arm, leg, or any other object, we cannot reach its original either.

When the brain is analysed, it is seen that there is nothing in it but lipid and protein molecules, which also exist in other living organisms. This means that within the piece of meat we call our "brain", there is nothing to observe the images, to constitute consciousness, or to form the being we call "myself".

R.L. Gregory refers to a mistake people make in relation to the perception of images in the brain:

There is a temptation, which must be avoided, to say that the eyes produce pictures in the brain. A picture in the brain suggests the need of some kind of internal eye to see it - but this would need a further eye to see its picture… and so on in an endless regress of eyes and pictures. This is absurd.50

This is the very point which puts the materialists, who do not hold anything but matter as real, in a quandary. To whom belongs "the eye inside" that sees, that interprets what it sees and reacts to it?

Karl Pribram also focused on this important question in the world of science and philosophy about who the perceiver is:

Philosophers since the Greeks have speculated about the "ghost" in the machine, the "little man inside the little man" and so on. Where is the I -- the entity that uses the brain? Who does the actual knowing? Or, as Saint Francis of Assisi once put it, "What we are looking for is what is looking".51

The brain is a heap of cells made up of protein and fat molecules. It is formed of nerve cells called neurons. There is no power in this piece of flesh to observe the images, to constitute consciousness, or to create the being we call "myself".

Now, think of this: The book in your hand, the room you are in, in brief, all the images in front of you are seen inside your brain. Is it the atoms that see these images? Blind, deaf, unconscious atoms? Why did some atoms acquire this quality whereas some did not? Do our acts of thinking, comprehending, remembering, being delighted, being unhappy, and everything else consist of the electrochemical reactions between these atoms?

When we ponder these questions, we see that there is no sense in looking for will in atoms. It is clear that the being who sees, hears, and feels is a supra-material being. This being is "alive" and it is neither matter, nor an image of matter. This being associates with the perceptions in front of it by using the image of the body.

This being is the "soul".

It is the soul that sees, hears, feels, perceives and interprets the copies in the brain of the matter existing on the outside. The intelligent beings that write and read these lines are not each a heap of atoms and molecules-and the chemical reactions between them-but a "soul".

The Real Absolute Being

All these facts bring us face to face with a very significant question. Since we can never know anything about the original of the material world and since we only have direct experience of replica images in our brains, then what is the source of these images?

So, who makes our soul watch the stars, the earth, the people, our body and all else that we see?

It is very evident that there exists a supreme Creator, Who has created the entire material universe and Who continues His creation ceaselessly. Since this Creator displays such a magnificent creation, He surely has eternal power and might.

This Creator introduces Himself to us. He has sent down a book and through this book has described Himself, and the universe and has explained the reason for our existence.

This Creator is Allah and the name of His Book is the Qur'an.

The fact that the universe, the heavens and the earth, are not stable, that their presence is only made possible by Allah's creation and that they will disappear when He ends this creation, is all explained as follows:

It is Allah Who sustains the heavens and the earth, lest they cease (to function): and if they should fail, there is none – not one – who can sustain them thereafter: Truly, He is Most Forbearing and Oft-Forgiving. (Surah Fatir, 41)

As we mentioned at the beginning, some people have no genuine understanding of Allah and so, as a result of terrible ignorance, they imagine Him as a being present somewhere in the heavens and not really intervening in worldly affairs. (Surely Allah is beyond that.) The basis of this corrupt logic actually lies in the mistaken thought that the universe is merely an assembly of matter and Allah is "outside" this material world, in a faraway place. (Surely Allah is beyond that.)

The only real absolute being is Allah. That means that only Allah exists; matter is not absolute being. The material world on the outside is one of the works of Allah's sublime creation. Allah is surely "everywhere" and encompasses all. This reality is explained in the Qur'an as follows;

Allah! There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. Neither slumber nor sleep can overtake Him. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who can intercede in His presence except as He permits? He knows what (appears to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall man grasp anything of His knowledge except as He wills. His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them, for He is the Most High, and the Supreme (in glory). (Surat al-Baqara, 255)

The facts that Allah is not bound by space and that He encompasses everything are stated in another verse as follows:

To Allah belong the east and the West: Wherever you turn, there is the presence of Allah. For Allah is all-Pervading, and all-Knowing. (Surat al-Baqara, 115)

The fullness of faith consists of understanding this truth, avoiding the mistake of associating others with Allah and acknowledging Allah as the One Absolute Being. Someone who knows that, apart from Allah, everything is a shadow existence, will say with certain faith (at the level of Haqq-al yakin - truth of certainty) that only Allah exists and there is no other deity (or any being with strength) besides Him.

The materialists do not believe in the existence of Allah, because they cannot see Him with their eyes. But their claims are completely invalidated when they learn the real nature of matter. Someone who learns this truth understands that his own existence has the quality of an illusion, and grasps that a being which is an illusion will not be able to see a being which is absolute. As it is revealed in the Qur'an, human beings cannot see Allah but Allah sees them.

Certainly, we human beings cannot see the Being of Allah with our eyes but we know that He completely encompasses our inside, our outside, our views and our thoughts. For this reason, Allah reveals Himself in the Qur'an as "controlling hearing and sight" (Surah Yunus: 31) We cannot say one word, we cannot even take one breath without Allah's knowing it. Therefore, Allah knows everything we do. This is revealed in the Qur'an:

Allah - Him from Whom nothing is hidden, either on earth or in heaven. (Surah Al 'Imran: 5)

As we imagine we have direct experience of the original of matter and watch the copy world in our brains, as we live our lives in other words, the closest being to us is Allah Himself. The secret is concealed in this reality: "It was We Who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him: for We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein." (Surah Qaf: 16) Allah has encompassed man and He is "infinitely close" to him.

Allah informs men that He is "infinitely close" to them with the verse: "When My servants ask you concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them)" (Surat al-Baqara, 186). Another verse relates the same fact: "We told you that your Lord encompasses mankind." (Surat al-Isra, 60).

Man is misled by thinking that the being that is closest to him is himself. Allah, in truth, is closer to us even more than ourselves. He has revealed this fact in the verse "Why do you not intervene when it (the soul) comes up to the throat, under your very eyes. We are nearer to him than you, but you do not see it." (Surat al-Waqia, 83-85). As we learn from this verse, some people live unaware of this phenomenal fact, because they do not see it with their own eyes.

Some people are unaware of this great fact. They accept that Allah created them, but think that the work they do belongs to them. However, every action performed by a human being is created with the permission of Allah. For example, a person who writes a book writes it with the permission of Allah; every sentence, every idea, and every paragraph is composed because Allah wishes it. Allah reveals this very important principle in several verses; one of these verses is, "... Allah created both you and what you do?". (Surat as-Saffat: 96) In these words "... when you threw; it was Allah Who threw... ", (Surat al-Anfal: 17) Allah reveals that everything we do is an act that belongs to Him.

This is the reality. One may not want to concede this; but this does not change a thing.

Understanding the Reality of Matter Removes Worldly Ambitions

If one ponders deeply on all that is said here, one will soon of one's own realise how amazing and extraordinary is our situation: that we can never have direct experience of the “external world.”…

What we have described so far is one of the most profound truths that you have heard in your whole life. We have shown that the whole material world is really a shadow, and that this is the key to understanding the existence of Allah, His creation, and the fact that He is the one absolute Being. At the same time, we have presented a scientifically undeniable demonstration both of how helpless human beings are and a manifestation of Allah's wonderful artistry. This knowledge compels people to belief making it impossible for them not to believe. This is the main reason why some people avoid this truth.

The things that are being explained here are as true as a physical law or a chemical formula. When necessary, human beings can solve the most difficult mathematical problems and understand many very complex matters. However, when these same people are informed that matter is an appearance formed in the human mind, and that they have no connection with it, they have no desire at all to understand. This is an exaggerated case of an inability to understand, because the idea discussed here is no more difficult than the answer to the questions, "What is two times two?" or "How old are you?", If you ask any scientist or professor of neurology where they see the world, they will answer you that they see it in their brains. You will find this fact even in high school biology text books. But despite the fact that it is clearly evident, information pertaining to the fact that we perceive the material world in our brains and the results that this information entails for human beings can be overlooked. It is of major significance that one of the most important scientifically proven facts is so carefully hidden from people's eyes.

The fundamental reason why people easily accept all scientific facts, yet are so afraid to accept this one, is that learning the truth about matter will basically change the way everyone looks at life. Those who believe that matter and the self are absolute beings will discover one day that everything they have worked for and protected based on this idea - their spouses, their children, their wealth, even their own personalities - is an illusion. People are very afraid of this reality and pretend not to understand it even if they do. They try with determination to disprove the facts, which are simple enough for even a primary school child to understand. The reason behind this opposition is that they are afraid to lose what this world offers.

For someone who is attached to his possessions, his children, or the transient offerings of this world, the illusory nature of matter is cause for great fear. At the moment such a person understands this, he will have died before his natural death, and he will have surrendered his possessions and his soul. In the verse, "If He did ask you for it (all your wealth) and put you under pressure, you would be tight-fisted and it would bring out your malevolence." (Surah Muhammad: 37), Allah reveals how human beings will behave with meanness and rancor when He demands their possessions from them.

But when a person learns the real nature of matter, he will understand that his soul and his possessions already belong to Allah. If he knows that there is nothing to give or to resist giving, he will submit himself and all he possesses to Allah before he dies. For sincere believers, this is a beautiful and honorable thing and a way to draw nearer to Allah. Those who do not believe or whose faith is weak cannot recognize this beauty and stubbornly reject this reality.

The Environment That Will Come To Be When the Real Nature of Matter Is Not Kept Secret

Those who know that they have no connection with the actual material things, and that they are in the presence only of images that Allah presents to them, will change their whole way of living, their view of life and their values. This will be a change that will be useful both from the personal and social point of view, because someone who sees this truth will live without difficulty according to the high moral qualities that Allah has revealed in the Qur'an.

For those who do not regard the world as important and who understand that matter is an illusion, it is spiritual things that deserve to be given importance. Someone who knows that Allah is listening to him and watching him at every moment, and is aware that he will render an account of his every action in the hereafter, will naturally live a morally virtuous life. He will be very careful about what Allah has commanded and what He has forbidden. Everyone in society will be filled with love and respect for one another, and everyone will compete with one another in the performance of good and noble deeds. People will change the values according to which they judge others. Material things will lose their value and therefore, people will be judged not according to their standing and position in society but according to their moral character and their piety. No one will pursue those things whose source is illusion; everyone will seek after truth. Everyone will act without worrying about what others will think; the only question in their minds will be whether or not Allah will be pleased with what they do. In the place of the feelings of pride, arrogance and self-satisfaction that come from possessions, property, standing and position, there will be a sense of the understanding of humility and dependence. Therefore, people will willingly live according to those examples of good moral qualities spoken of in the Qur'an. Eventually, these changes will put an end to many problems of today's societies.

In place of angry, aggressive people, anxious even about small profit, there will be those who know that everything they see is an image shown by Allah. They will be well aware that reactions of anger and loud shouting make them look foolish. Well-being and trust will prevail in individuals and societies and everyone will be pleased with his life and possessions. These, then, are some of the blessings that this hidden reality will bring to individuals and societies. Knowing, considering and living according to this reality will bring many more goodnesses to human beings. Those who wish to attain these goodnesses should consider this reality well and endeavor to understand it. In one verse, Allah says,

Clear insights have come to you from your Lord. Whoever sees clearly, does so to his own benefit. Whoever is blind, it is to his own detriment... (Surat al-An'am: 104)

Logical Deficiencies of the Materialists

Some people accept that when they touch a bus, they feel the cold metal in their brains. On the other hand, they do not accept that the feeling of pain at the moment the bus hits them forms in the brain. However, a person will feel the same pain if he sees himself falling under a bus in his dream.

From the beginning of this chapter, we have seen through scientific evidence that matter is not an absolute entity as the materialists claim, and that we never have direct experience of the original of the matter that exists outside us. Materialists resist in an extremely dogmatic manner this evident reality which destroys their philosophy and bring forward baseless anti-theses.

For example, one of the biggest advocates of the materialist philosophy in the 20th century, an ardent Marxist, George Politzer, gave the "bus example" as supposedly a great evidence regarding this matter. According to Politzer, philosophers who espouse the fact that we deal with the copy of matter in our brains also run away when they see a bus bearing down on them.52

When another famous materialist, Johnson, was told that we are never in contact with the original matter, he tried to deny this truth by giving stones a kick.53

There are similar examples and ill-considered statements such as "You understand the real nature of matter when you are slapped in the face," in the books of famous materialists such as Marx, Engels, Lenin, and others.

The point where materialists are mistaken is that they think the concept of "perception" only applies to the sense of sight. In fact, all sensations, such as touch, contact, hardness, pain, heat, cold and wetness also form in the human brain, in precisely the same way that visual images are formed. For instance, someone who feels the cold metal of the door as he gets off a bus, actually "feels the cold metal" in his brain. This is a clear and well-known truth. As we have already seen, the sense of touch forms in a particular section of the brain, through nerve signals from the fingertips, for instance. It is not your fingers that do the feeling. People accept this because it has been demonstrated scientifically. However, when it comes to the bus hitting someone, not just to his feeling the metal of the indoor-in other words when the sensation of touch is more violent and painful-they think that this fact somehow no longer applies. However, pain or heavy blows are also perceived in the brain. Someone who is hit by a bus feels all the violence and pain of the event in his brain.

In order to understand this better, it will be useful to consider our dreams. A person may dream of being hit by a bus, of opening his eyes in hospital later, being taken for an operation, the doctors talking, his family's anxious arrival at the hospital, and that he is crippled or suffers terrible pain. In his dream, he perceives all the images, sounds, feelings of hardness, pain, light, the colors in the hospital, all aspects of the incident in fact, very clearly and distinctly. They are all as natural and believable as in real life. At that moment, if the person who is having that dream were told it was only a dream, he would not believe it. Yet all that he is seeing is an illusion, and the bus, hospital and even the body he sees in his dream have no physical counterpart in the real world. Although they have no physical counterparts, he still feels as if a 'real body' has been hit by a 'real bus.'

In the same way, there is no validity to the materialists' objections along the lines of "You realize that the real nature of matter when someone hits you," "You cannot doubt whether you see the original of matter when someone kicks your knee," "You run away when you meet a savage dog," "When a bus has hit you, you understand whether it is in your brain or not," or "In that case, go and stand on the motorway in front of the oncoming traffic". A sharp blow, the pain from a dog's teeth or a violent slap are not evidence that you are dealing with the matter itself. As we have seen, you can experience the same things in dreams, with no corresponding physical counterparts. Furthermore, the violence of a sensation does not alter the fact that the sensation in question occurs in the brain. This is a clearly proven scientific fact.

The reason why some people think that a fast-moving bus on the motorway or an accident caused by that bus are striking proofs of the fact they are dealing with the physical existence of matter is that the image concerned is seen and felt as so real that it deceives one. The images around them, for instance the perfect perspective and depth of the motorway, the perfection of the colors, shapes and shadows they contain, the vividness of sound, smell and hardness, and the completeness of the logic within that image can deceive some people. On account of this vividness, some people forget that these are actually perceptions. Yet no matter how complete and flawless the perceptions in the mind may be, that does not alter the fact that they are still perceptions. If someone is hit by a car while walking along the road, or is trapped under a house that collapses during an earthquake, or is surrounded by flames during a fire, or trips up and falls down the stairs, he still experiences all these things in his mind, and is not actually confronting the reality of what happens.

When someone falls under a bus, the bus in his mind hits the body in his mind. The fact that he dies as a result, or that his body is completely shattered, does not alter this reality. If something a person experiences in his mind ends in death, Allah replaces the images He shows that person with images belonging to the hereafter. Those who are unable to understand the truth of this now on honest reflection will certainly do so when they die.

The Example of Connecting the Nerves in Parallel

Let us consider the car crash example of Politzer: In this accident, if the crushed person's nerves travelling from the points of impact to his brain, were connected to another person's, for instance Politzer's brain, with a parallel connection, at the moment the bus hit that person, it would also hit Politzer, who was sitting at home at that moment. Better to say, all the feelings experienced by that person having the accident would be experienced by Politzer, just as the same song is listened to from two different loudspeakers connected to the same tape recorder. Politzer would feel, see, and experience the braking sound of the bus, the impact of the bus on his body, the images of a broken arm and the shedding of blood, fracture aches, the images of his entering the operation room, the hardness of the plaster cast, and the feebleness of his arm.

Every other person connected to the man's nerves in parallel would experience the accident from beginning to end just like Politzer. If the man in the accident fell into a coma, they would all fall into a coma. Moreover, if all the perceptions pertaining to the car accident could be recorded by some sophisticated device and if all these perceptions were then transmitted to another person, the bus would knock him down many times.

So, which one of the buses hitting those people is real? The materialist philosophy has no consistent answer to this question. The right answer is that they would all experience the car accident in all its details in their own minds.

The same principle applies to the cake and stone examples. If the nerves of the sense organs of Engels, who felt the satiety and fullness of the cake in his stomach after eating a cake, were connected to a second person's brain in parallel, that person would also feel full when Engels ate the cake and was satiated. If the nerves of Johnson, who felt pain in his foot when he delivered a sound kick to a stone, were connected to a second person in parallel, that person would feel the same pain.

So, which cake or which stone is the real one? The materialist philosophy again falls short of giving a consistent answer to this question. The correct and consistent answer is this: both Engels and the second person have eaten the cake in their minds and are satiated; both Johnson and the second person have fully experienced the moment of striking the stone in their minds.

Let us make a change in the example we gave about Politzer: let us connect the nerves of the man hit by the bus to Politzer's brain, and the nerves of Politzer sitting in his house to that man's brain, who is hit by the bus. In this case, Politzer will think that a bus has hit him, although sitting at home; and the man actually hit by the bus will never feel the impact of the accident and think that he is sitting in Politzer's house. The very same logic may be applied to the cake and the stone examples.

As is evident, it is not possible for man to transcend his senses and break free of them. In this respect, a man's soul can be subjected to all kinds of representations, although it has no physical body and no material existence and lacks material weight. It is not possible for a person to realise this because he assumes these three-dimensional images to be real and is absolutely certain of their existence, because everybody depends on the perceptions stemming from his sensory organs.

The famous British philosopher David Hume expresses his thoughts on this fact:

For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception.54

The Formation of Perceptions in the Brain is not Philosophy but Scientific Fact

Materialists claim that what we have been presenting here is a philosophical view. However, to hold that we never have direct experience of the original of the "external world" is not a matter of philosophy but a plain scientific fact. How images and feelings form in the brain is taught in detail in all medical schools. These facts, proven by 20th-century science, and particularly by physics, clearly show that matter does not have an absolute reality and that everyone in a sense is watching the "monitor in his brain".

Everyone who believes in science, be he an atheist, Buddhist, or of any other persuasion, has to accept this fact. A materialist might deny the existence of a Creator in his own limited understanding, yet he cannot deny this scientific reality.

The inability of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Georges Politzer and others to comprehend such a simple and evident fact still seems startling, even although the level of scientific understanding and range of possibilities of their times were less than adequate. In our time, science and technology are highly advanced and recent discoveries make it easier to comprehend this fact. Materialists, on the other hand, are stricken with the fear of both comprehending this fact, albeit partially, and realising how definitively it demolishes their philosophy.

The Great Fear of the Materialists

Turkish materialist writer Rennan Pekunlu says that "the theory of evolution is not so important, the real threat is this subject," because he is aware that this subject reveals how the absoluteness of matter, the only concept in which he has faith, is a grave deception.

For quite some time now, materialists have been loudly giving vent to their fear and panic in their publications, conferences and panel discussions. Their agitated and hopeless discourses imply that they are suffering from a severe intellectual crisis. The scientific collapse of the theory of evolution, the so-called basis of their philosophy, had already come as a great shock to them. Now, they have come to realise that they are starting to lose matter itself, which is a greater mainstay for them than Darwinism, and the shock they experience as a result is even greater. They declare that this issue is the "biggest threat" for them, and that it totally "demolishes their cultural fabric".

One of those who expressed in the most outspoken way this anxiety and panic felt by materialist circles was Renan Pekunlu, an academician as well as contributor to Bilim ve Utopya (Science and Utopia), a periodical which has assumed the task of defending materialism. Both in his articles in Bilim ve Utopya and in the panel discussions he has attended, Pekunlu presented the book The Evolution Deceit, the first book in which this subject was brought up,as the number one "threat" to materialism. What disturbed Pekunlu even more than the chapters that invalidated Darwinism was the part you are currently reading. To his readers and (only a handful of) audience, Pekunlu delivered the message: "Do not let yourselves be carried away by the indoctrination of idealism and keep your faith in materialism," and gave Vladimir I. Lenin, the leader of the bloody communist revolution in Russia, as his reference. Advising everyone to read Lenin's century-old book titled Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, all Pekunlu did was to repeat the ignorant counsels of Lenin, stating: "Do not think over this issue, or you will lose track of materialism and be carried away by religion." In an article he wrote in the aforementioned periodical, he quoted the following lines from Lenin:

Once you deny objective reality, given us in sensation, you have already lost every weapon against fideism, for you have slipped into agnosticism or subjectivism-and that is all that fideism requires. A single claw ensnared, and the bird is lost. And our Machists have all become ensnared in idealism, that is, in a diluted, subtle fideism; they became ensnared from the moment they took "sensation" not as an image of the external world but as a special "element". It is nobody's sensation, nobody's mind, nobody's spirit, nobody's will.55

These words explicitly demonstrate that the fact which Lenin alarmingly realised and wanted to banish both from his own mind and the minds of his "comrades" also disturbs contemporary materialists in a similar way. However, Pekunlu and other materialists suffer yet a greater distress; because they are aware that this fact is now being put forward in a far more explicit, certain and convincing way than 100 years ago. For the first time in world history, this subject is being explained in a quite irresistible way.

Nevertheless, the general picture is that a great number of materialist scientists still take a very superficial stand against the fact that "we never have direct experience of the original of matter." The subject explained in this chapter is one of the most important and most exciting subjects that one can ever come across in his life. There is no chance of ever having faced such a crucial subject before. Still, the reactions of these scientists and the manner they adopt in their speeches and articles hint at how superficial their comprehension is.

The reactions of some materialists to the subject discussed here show in no uncertain manner that their blind adherence to materialism has caused some kind of a flaw in their logic and for this reason, they are far removed from comprehending the subject. For instance, Alaattin Senel, also an academician and a writer for Bilim ve Utopya, delivered himself of similar messages as Rennan Pekunlu saying: "Forget the collapse of Darwinism, the really threatening subject is this one," and issued such challenges as "so you prove what you say," sensing that his own philosophy is groundless. What is more interesting is that this writer himself has shown in his writings that he can by no means grasp this fact which he considers to be a menace.

For instance, in an article in which he exclusively discussed this subject, Senel accepts that the external world is perceived in the brain as an image. However, he then goes on to write: "I do not know whether the images in my brain have correlates in the external world or not, but the same thing applies when I speak on the phone. When I speak on the telephone, I cannot see the person I am speaking to but I can have this conversation confirmed when I later see him face to face."56

By saying so, this writer actually means the following: "If we doubt our perceptions, we can look at matter itself and check its reality." However, this is an evident misconception, because it is impossible for us to reach matter itself. We can never get out of our minds and know what is "outside". Whether the voice on the phone has a correlate or not can be confirmed by the person on the phone. However, this confirmation is also a confirmation experienced by the mind.

As a matter of fact, the same events may be experienced also in dreams. For instance, Senel may also see in his dream that he speaks on the phone and then have this conversation confirmed by the person to whom he spoke. Or, Pekunlu may in his dream feel as if he is facing "a serious threat" and advise people to read the century-old books of Lenin. However, no matter what they do, these materialists cannot deny the fact that they never experience the original of the events that have happened and the people they have talked to in their dreams.

Materialists Have Fallen into The Biggest Trap in History

The atmosphere of panic sweeping through materialist circles in Turkey, of which we have mentioned only a few examples, shows that materialists face utter defeat, one which they have never previously suffered. That we do not have direct experience of the original matter has been proven by modern science and it is put forward in a very clear, straightforward and forceful way. It only remains for materialists to see and acknowledge the collapse of the entire material world in which they blindly believe and on which they rely.

Materialist thought has always existed throughout the history of humanity. Being very assured of themselves and the philosophy they believed in, materialists ignorantly revolted against Allah Who created them. The irrational and unscientific scenario they formulated maintained that matter has no beginning or end, and that none of its forms could possibly have a Creator. (Surely Allah is beyond that.) Because of their arrogance, they denied Allah and took refuge in the lie that matter was the absolute entity. They were so confident in this philosophy that they thought that it would never be possible to put forward an explanation proving the contrary.

That is why the facts as set forth in this book regarding the real nature of matter surprised these people to such a degree. What has been explained here has destroyed the very basis of their philosophy and left no ground for further discussion. Matter, upon which they based all their thoughts, lives, arrogance and denial, vanished all of a sudden.

One of the attributes of Allah is His plotting against the unbelievers. This is stated in the verse: "They plot and plan, but Allah too plans; and Allah is the best of planners." (Surat al- Anfal, 30)

Allah entrapped materialists by making them assume that they deal with the original of matter and, in so doing, humiliated them in hidden ways. Materialists deemed they knew the originals of their possessions, status, rank, the society to which they belonged, the whole world and everything else, of which they actually had an experience of only the copies, and ignorantly grew arrogant toward Allah in their reliance on these things. Displaying the greatest unreason, they revolted against Allah by being boastful, thereby taking their unbelief to extremes. While so doing, they totally relied on matter. Yet, they were so lacking in understanding that they failed to think that Allah totally encompasses them. Allah announces the state to which the unbelievers are led as a result of their thick-headedness:

Or do they intend a plot (against you)? But those who defy Allah shall themselves be ruined! (Surat at-Tur, 42)

This is most probably the biggest defeat in history. As they grew more arrogant, materialists were tricked and suffered a serious defeat in the struggle they attempted to wage against Allah by bringing up something monstrous against Him. The verse: "Thus have We placed leaders in every town, its wicked men, to plot therein: but they only plot against their own souls, and they do not perceive it," indicates how lacking in awareness these people who ignorantly revolt against our Creator are, and what their fate will be. (Surat al- An'am: 123). In another verse the same fact is related:

Fain would they deceive Allah and those who believe, but they only deceive themselves, and do not realise it! (Surat al-Baqarah, 9)

While the unbelievers try to plot, they do not realise a very important fact, which is stressed by the words "they only deceive themselves, and do not realise it!". This is the fact that everything they experience is a piece of copy image they deal with in their minds, and they have experience of the copies of all the plots they devise in their brains just like every other act they perform. Their folly has made them forget that they are all alone with Allah and, are thus entrapped in their own devious plans.

No less than those unbelievers who lived in the past, those living today face a reality that will shake their devious plans to their very foundations. With the statement that "…feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan" (Surat an-Nisa, 76), Allah says that these plots were doomed to end with failure the day they were hatched. He gives good tidings to believers with the assertion that "…not the least harm will their cunning do you." (Surat 'Ali Imran, 120)

In another verse Allah says: "As for the unbelievers, their deeds are like a mirage in sandy deserts, which the man parched with thirst mistakes for water; until when he comes up to it, he finds it to be nothing." (Surat an-Nur, 39). Materialism, too, becomes a "mirage" for the rebellious, just as stated in this verse; when they have recourse to it, they find it to be nothing but an illusion. Allah has deceived them with such a mirage, and shown them this whole collection of images as if they experienced their originals. All those professors, astronomers, biologists, physicists, and all others regardless of their rank and position are simply deceived like children, and are humiliated because they unwisely took matter as their god. (Surely Allah is beyond that.) Assuming the copy images they see in their brains to be absolute, they based their philosophy and ideology on it, became involved in serious discussions, and indulged in so-called "intellectual" discourse. They deemed themselves wise enough to offer an argument about the truth of the universe and, more importantly, to imagine vain thoughts about Allah with their limited intelligence. Allah explains their situation in the following verse:

And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah. (Surat 'Ali Imran, 54)

It may be possible to escape from some plots; however, this plan of Allah against the unbelievers is so foolproof that there is no way of escape from it. No matter what they do or to whom they appeal, they can never find a helper other than Allah. As Allah declares in the Qur'an, "they shall not find for them other than Allah a patron or a helper." (Surat an-Nisa, 173)

Materialists never expected to fall into such a trap. Having all the means of the 20th century at their disposal, they thought they could remain obdurate in their denial and coerce people into disbelief. In the Qur'an, Allah thus describes this unremittingly stubborn mentality of the unbelievers and their end:

They plotted and planned, but We too planned, and they did not perceive it. Then see what was the end of their plot! This, that We destroyed them and their people, all (of them).(Surat an-Naml, 50-51)

This, on another level, is what the verses come to mean: materialists are made to realise that they have experience of only the copies in their brains of everything they own, and therefore everything they possess has been destroyed. As they witness their possessions, factories, gold, dollars, children, spouses, friends, rank and status, and even their own bodies, the originals of all of which they deem to know, slipping out of their reach, they are "destroyed" in a sense. At this point, they are no longer material entities but souls.

No doubt, realising this truth is the worst possible situation for materialists. This is tantamount, in their own words, to "death before dying" in this world.

With the verse, "Leave Me alone, (to deal) with the (creature) whom I created (bare and) alone",Allah reveals the fact that each human being is, in truth, all alone in His presence. (Surat al- Muddaththir, 11). This remarkable fact is repeated in many other verses:

And behold! You come to us bare and alone as We created you for the first time: you have left behind you all (the favours) which We bestowed on you… (Surat al-An'am, 94)

And each one of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection, alone. (Surah Maryam, 95)

This, on another level, is what the verses indicate: those who ignorantly take matter as their god (surely Allah is beyond that) have nevertheless come from Allah and must return to Him. They must submit their wills to Allah whether they want to or not. Now they must wait for the Day of Judgement when every one of them will be called to account, however unwilling they may be to acknowledge this.

Conclusion

The subject we have explained so far is one of the greatest truths that will ever be told to you in your lifetime. Proving that we never have direct experience of the original of matter, this subject is the key to comprehending the existence of and creation by Allah, and to understanding that He is the only absolute being.

The person who understands this subject realises that the world is not the sort of place it is surmised by most people to be. The world is not an absolute place, of which we know the original, as supposed by those who wander aimlessly about in the streets, who get into fights in pubs, who show off in luxurious cafes, who brag about their property, or who dedicate their lives to hollow aims. All our knowledge of the world consists of copy images we see in our brains. All of the people we have cited above are only shadow beings who watch these copy images in their minds: yet they are not aware of this.

This concept is very important, for it undermines and demolishes the materialist philosophy that denies the existence of Allah. This is the reason why materialists like Marx, Engels, and Lenin felt panic, became enraged, and warned their followers "not to think over" this concept when they were told about it. As a matter of fact, such people are in such a state of mental deficiency that they cannot even comprehend the fact that perceptions are formed inside the brain. They assume that the world they watch in their brains is the "original external world" and they cannot comprehend the obvious evidence to the contrary.

This unawareness is the outcome of the lack of wisdom given to disbelievers by Allah. As Allah reveals in the Qur'an, the unbelievers "have hearts with which they do not understand, eyes with which they do not see, and ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle—nay more misguided: for they are heedless (of warning)." (Surat al-Araf, 179)

In the age in which we live, this fact has been empirically proven by the body of evidence put forward by science. The fact that we do not experience the original of the universe is described in such a concrete, clear, and explicit way for the first time in history.

For this reason, the 21st century will be a historical-turning point when people will generally comprehend the divine realities and be led in crowds to Allah, the only Absolute Being. In the 21st century, the twisted materialistic creeds of the 19th century will be relegated to the trash-heaps of history, Allah's existence and creation will be grasped, such facts as spacelessness and timelessness will be understood, and humanity will break free of the centuries-old veils, deceits and superstitions enshrouding the truth.

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